Aircraft components including engine intake ducts, flooring and wing sections are frequently made of honeycomb material which is lightweight, rigid and capable of being fabricated in many shapes. Honeycomb is, however, expensive, difficult to work with, problematic when contour changes are required, awkward to attach other parts to, and not readily repairable. These drawbacks to honeycomb structural elements have been met by reinforcing the element where other parts are to be mounted, by adding brackets at junctions of internal members and, in general, beefing up the structural element, all at the cost of increasing its weight, thus lessening the most significant putative advantage of the honeycomb.
Honeycomb further suffers the disadvantage of using bonding agents such as resin adhesives to bond the components together. Bonded together structural elements have increased material costs, possible bonding failures, and more complex and, thus, more expensive construction procedures.